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Home  »  The Poets of Transcendentalism  »  George Shepard Burleigh (1821–1903)

George Willis Cooke, comp. The Poets of Transcendentalism: An Anthology. 1903.

Dare and Know

George Shepard Burleigh (1821–1903)

THE TRUTHS we cannot win are fruit forbidden,

That knowledge only is, by proof not ours,

Which lies beyond the measure of our powers:

Not by God’s grudging are our natures chidden,

His hidden things for daring search are hidden:

The cloudy darkness that around him lowers

Burns only with his glory, and the dowers

Of Hero-hearts who have gone up and ridden

The storm like eagles! If the lightning singe

The intrepid wing, ’t is but the burning kiss

Of Victory in Espousal,—the keen bliss

Whose rapturous thrill might make the coward cringe!

He who aloft on Rood-nails hung our crown

Smiles when with bleeding hands we climb and pluck it down!